{"id":2510,"date":"2026-02-09T02:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2026-02-12T20:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:29:31","slug":"pros-and-cons-of-renting-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/pros-and-cons-of-renting-your-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros and Cons of Renting Your Home Instead of Selling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Typically, homeowners anticipating a move will seek to sell their current home, often needing the cash from the sale to help purchase their next home. Sometimes, circumstances have homeowners wondering what the pros and cons of renting your home are and whether it\u2019s feasible to turn the old home into an investment funded by renters.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">Get an Estimate on Your Home's Value<\/h3>\n                        <p>It only takes two minutes to answer a few questions. You\u2019ll receive a detailed analysis of your home straight to your inbox immediately. Simply tell us a little bit about your property (the address, type of property, it\u2019s condition and the year it was built) and how soon you\u2019re looking to sell.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/home-value-estimator\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Get Estimate<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n <div id=\"section--1\" data-toc-header=\"Market overview for renting and selling\" data-toc-type=\"head\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2>Market overview for renting and selling<\/h2>\n<h3>Rent prices and vacancies are stabilizing<\/h3>\n<p>After a sharp increase in apartment rents during the pandemic, U.S. rental markets are beginning to cool off. The national rental vacancy rate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/housing\/hvs\/current\/index.html\">stood at 7.2%<\/a> in the fourth quarter of 2025, around the same rate as the same period last year (6.9%), according to U.S. Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n<p>When vacancy rates stabilize, rent prices tend to follow suit. Apartments.com reports that in January 2026, rent prices increased by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apartments.com\/blog\/apartments.com-national-rent-trends-report\">0.4%<\/a> compared to last year. Hollywood, FL, saw the biggest rent increase at 6.5%, followed by Brooklyn, NY (5.7%), and Miami Beach, FL (4.1%).<\/p>\n<p>The surge in new units caused vacancy rates to rise and rents to fall in some markets, most notably the Sun Belt, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.credaily.com\/newsletters\/national\/issue\/sunbelt-overbuilding-sparks-wave-of-free-rent-offers\/\">supply continues to outpace demand<\/a>. A slowdown in building new apartments is expected in 2026, depending on market conditions at the start of the year. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.credaily.com\/newsletters\/national\/issue\/2025-rental-market-recap-demand-soars-availability-shrinks-across-major-metros\/\">construction slowdown<\/a> could push rent prices higher in 2026 as inventory tightens.<\/p>\n<p>The rental market looks stable for would-be landlords, but let\u2019s look at the climate for selling your home.<\/p>\n<h3>Home sales slow down as mortgage rates and prices increase<\/h3>\n<p>Record-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates dampened home sales across the country in 2025. However, inventory is gradually increasing as home sellers aim to capitalize on the equity they have rapidly accumulated since 2021. According to Cotality, as of December 2025, the average U.S. mortgage holder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cotality.com\/press-releases\/u-s-home-equity-dips-fall-2025\">boasts $299,000 in equity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2025, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing-home sales <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/newsroom\/existing-home-sales-slid-1-0-in-september\">grew by 1.4% year-over-year<\/a>, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.35 million. The median price of an existing home <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/newsroom\/existing-home-sales-edged-lower-by-0-7-in-may-as-median-sales-price-reached-record-high-of-419300\">climbed 0.4% to $405,400<\/a> \u2014 the 30th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases. Meanwhile, the 30-year mortgage interest rate hovered around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freddiemac.com\/pmms\">6.11%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The inventory of unsold existing homes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/newsroom\/existing-home-sales-slid-1-0-in-september\">stood at 1.18 million<\/a> at the end of December 2025, an 18.1% decrease compared to the same period a year earlier. This equated to 3.3 months&#8217; supply, which is indicative of a seller\u2019s market. For context, a balanced market typically has 5 to 7 months of supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Considering the landlord path? We put together a list of the pros and cons of renting your home and the pros and cons for selling it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":46138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[329,319],"tags":[496,313],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flipping","category-selling-advice","tag-investment-property","tag-pros-and-cons-of-renting-your-home"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pros and Cons of Renting Your Home Instead of Selling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Considering the landlord path? 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